Windshield and a method for mitigating glare from a windshield of an automobile

• US 10,262,211 B2
• Filed: 11/18/2016
• Issued: 04/16/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 09/28/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Wipro Limited
• Original Assignee: Wipro Limited
• Inventors: Govindasamy, Sathish
• Primary Examiner(s): Mistry, Oneal R
• Application Number:
  US15/355,133
• Publication Number:
  US 20180089516A1
• Time in Patent Office: 879 Days
• CPC Class Codes: B60J 3/04 adjustable in transparency
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 18/24 Classification techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/20021 Dividing image into blocks, subimages or windows
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/30261 Obstacle
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/70 Determining position or orientation of objects or cameras camera calibration G06T7/80
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/56 exterior to a vehicle by using sensors mounted on the vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/193 Preprocessing; Feature extraction
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/51 Housings

Abstract

Disclosed herein is a method for mitigating glare from a windshield of an automobile. Plurality of images, captured from plurality of image capturing devices placed at predefined locations of automobile, are collected. Various image processing techniques are applied on the plurality of collected images to identify line of sight of driver of the automobile, presence of glare on the windshield and position of glare. A free floating opaque matter placed within the windshield is moved to the position of glare on windshield, thereby preventing the glare from affecting the driver. Movement of opaque matter on to the position of the glare is achieved by varying electrostatic potential to be applied across metal frame encircling the windshield. The windshield disclosed hereinabove is capable of adaptively positioning the opaque matter over the position of the glare without requiring any intervention from the driver, thereby facilitating in a smooth drive of the automobile.

Claims

1. A method for mitigating glare from a windshield of an automobile, the method comprising:

receiving, by a glare mitigation system, a plurality of images from a plurality of image capturing devices placed at predefined locations of an automobile;

determining, by the glare mitigation system, a line of sight through a windshield of a driver of the automobile based on a driver image from among the plurality of images;

determining, by the glare mitigation system, a position of a glare on the windshield caused by vehicles traversing in front of the automobile based on a location of a first image capturing device from among the plurality of image capturing devices, a resolution of a first image of the first image capturing device, and a reference point of the windshield associated with the line of sight of the driver; and

positioning, by the glare mitigation system, a free floating opaque matter within the windshield, over the position of the glare, wherein positioning the free floating opaque matter over the position of the glare comprises varying electrostatic potential across a metal frame enclosing the windshield to cause movement of the free floating opaque matter within the windshield.

2. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein:

determining the position of the glare is further based on a location of a second image capturing device from among the plurality of image capturing devices, and a resolution of a second image from the second image capturing device.

3. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein:

determining the position of a glare is further based on detecting an intensity of light above a threshold intensity value in the first image.

4. The method as claimed in claim 3, wherein the threshold intensity value is dynamically determined based on ambient light intensity around the automobile.

5. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the determining the position of the glare on the windshield further comprises:

identifying, in the first image, two or more image blocks, each having a respective block size;

identifying an image block with the highest intensity of light;

identifying the position of the image block having the highest intensity of light based on the respective block size of the image block and the resolution of the first image; and

determining the position of the glare on the windshield based on the position of the image block with respect to the reference point of the windshield and the location of the first image capturing device.

6. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein density, shape and size of the free floating opaque matter, to be positioned over the position of the glare, is determined at least based on an intensity of light, size and shape of the glare.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the line of sight comprises:

detecting the position of an eye of the driver, based on the driver image.